Resurrecting the MacBook's number pad

Reader Timothy Barrett has a new MacBook Pro and old habits. He writes:

I recently upgraded from an old 15-inch MacBook Pro to a new unibody MacBook Pro. I love my new laptop but miss being able to press the Fn key and use the J, K, L, U, I, O, 7, 8, 9 keys for a number pad as I could with my old laptop. Is there any way to make that work with new Apple laptops?

There is. Download a copy of Takayama Fumihiko’s free KeyRemap4MacBook. This is a PreferencePane that lets you remap the Mac’s keyboard in interesting ways.

In order to bring the MacBook’s number pad functions back from the dead you need do nothing more than install KeyRemap4MacBook and restart your Mac. If you’re running Snow Leopard you don’t have to remap anything or even open the Preference Pane. Just hold down Fn plus the letters you mentioned and your laptop will cheerfully produce numbers as did your old one.

If you’re running Leopard you must open KeyRemap4MacBook in System Preferences, flip down the triangle next to Remap Fn Key, and enable the Fn to Fn (with NumLock) option. Your Leopard-running laptop will now have a functional number pad.